Monthly Archives: August 2014

There has been recent ridicule of a community member for e-mailing the City Council of Wildomar in the early morning hours after a recent incident at one of our parks during which security in the form of private or law enforcement was severely lacking.
Doing a quick check of the progress on the safety enhancement of our Tot-Lots this is what I found on Saturday morning August 23rd at 9:00 in the AM at the very park in question.

Hiding under the Tot-Lot structure is a secret lair.

Containing all the goodies a child should have to entertain themselves

Many months ago it was announced that a young citizen in furtherance of their scouting life would be allowed once again to donate a project to the City of Wildomar that is supposed to enhance the parks for all of its citizens using donated materials and volunteer hours.
This project has been called “The Freedom Swing” and is the donation of a wheelchair accessible swing for those children unable to leave their wheelchair and enjoy swinging with the rest of the children.
On the surface this would appear a fine project that would benefit a small but important group of citizens. But due to a lack of foresight by city council members and a lack of homework by staff this project like ones before it is turning into a taxpayer nightmare with cost estimates to the taxpayer of between $10,900.00 and $28,750.00.
This project at first scheduled to be placed in the cities premier park, Marna O’Brien, on August 23rd is still without a home. The city staff is madly scrambling to locate a suitable location that will fulfil all of the goals of inclusion and safety that are required when a city installs equipment in its parks, most especially its Tot-Lots which entertain the youngest members of our community.
On Monday August 25th, two days after its initial placement date, the City of Wildomar Standing Committee for Parks will hold a meeting to determine a final resting place for this project along with an estimate of how many thousands of taxpayer dollars this project is going to cost to bring to completion.
At this meeting which will determine where and how much, city officials are already making plans (once again) for the celebration of its placement at a park that may not be finished in time, cost effective nor its final home.
Talk about the cart before the horse, this is a common theme in Wildomar. Let’s make a promise and then figure out how to fulfill it no matter what it cost the taxpayer.

It’s ALMOST time to move on to another area the could some attention and start being a pain in the rear about something new.
With the Tot-Lots on their way to being safe places for the children to play it is time to start focusing on a way to clean up the parks so everyone can enjoy a sanitary and sparkling fresh look.
The City of Wildomar needs to purchase a trailer mounted, hot water, high pressure power washer so that all the gum, gunk, doggy diarrhea and splotches of paint can be removed from the walkways, tables, walls, Tot-Lot apparatuses and rocks in our parks.

Next to the Tot-Lot at Marna

This is a regular occurrence in this area of the park.

This really tacky at the entrance to the park

Painted rock not by the Chumash

This is the third in a series of many

If your dashboard looked like this you clean it.

Notice the discoloration in the sidewalk

Bet this glows under ultraviolet.

Paint be gone with a little soap and hot water under pressure

Paint can’t be as slick as clean plastic

A fine welcome that could be so much brighter with some cleaning

If Moses had seen this he would have turned back

All this dirt could be removed as well to look like the next picture

Would be nice if the whole drain looked like this without spending a fortune in water

Even little ole Windsong Park has its issues.

Makes for peaceful walk to see this

This in the gazebo with no tables. Another issue.

One might ask why not rent one, how often can it be used. With the graffiti problems that plaque this region, quite often. Another benefit would be the sharing of this unit with our local fire department who because of the Governor’s Drought Declaration is only allowed to wash their vehicles when safety requires it.
These units are pricey, anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 but there is no other really effective way of removing all that gum and paint. After all the city is not collecting $150,000 more than the county collected for parks let us it for something other than administrative cost.

While making my weekly visit to the 3 parks of Wildomar one can see some progress being made. The part-time parks employee has been more visible this week walking the parks removing trash strewn about and picking up after the scofflaws that continue to allow their animals to deposit waste along the way. That and the Swisher Sweet containers scattered about.

Madness for sure.

With the help of an industrious volunteer the city employee has resuscitated 8 of the 9 field drains by performing a atherectomy and removing essentially 100% occlusion before the rainy season.

Before Cleaning

After removing 10 pounds of dirt and trash.

One field drain still needs to be opened, but the city employee needs to borrow tools from the cemetery district to perform this task. The part-time worker has been observed hosing off gazebos and picnic tables without the benefit of a automatic shut off nozzle, he doesn’t even have one of those. Hopefully before the rainy season starts the city will pop for the necessary fossil filters that should have been replace long ago and the parking lot drains along with the “bioswale” drains can be looked after as specified by the BMP in the WQMP.
Speaking of bioswales.

What a bioswale should look like

Wildomar’s idea of a bioswale

Parking lot drain in serious need of attention. May take heavy equipment to straighten out top so filter can be removed

An item specified in the WQMP for Marna O’Brien Park and touted all over Riverside County but rarely implemented.

This one is located in an HOA where a former Planning Director is on the Board.

Typical Wildomar Drain, no markings whatsoever

Another item specified in the WQMP is the posting of Santa Margarita and Santa Ana Watershed Information on a bulletin board.

Not much information here

BMP in WQMP
(That translates into Best Management Practice in Water Quality Management Plan for which the County of Riverside escaped thousand of dollars in fines from the Regional Water Board by implementing, almost a year after completing the park. This document was supposed to be completed before construction even got started.)

The city employee has also been attempting to maintain the previously ignored Tot-Lots for which the citizens still await a Certified Playground Safety Inspection which has not been done to my knowledge. Despite the lack of inspection there is progress being made in this area. One can’t help notice the newly added surfacing material that has made the Tot-Lots look complete rather than a giant void as before.

Seriously lacking surfacing material to cushion a fall. Also uneven.

This lack of material led to numerous exposed hazards.

Today it is much better with an even surface and hazards properly covered

Numerous other hazards were taken care of when additional surfacing material (Engineered Wood Fiber) was added

Two week ago at the beginning of August. 113 days after the parks opened to the public

What it looks today after bitching to the city council

The beginning of August. Just waiting to remove a toe

What it looks like today.

Some hardware has been replaced where previously missing, thanks to a generous donation from Coast Recreation in Costa Mesa when their representative happened to be in the area and stopped by.

What it looked like the beginning of August. Missing several pieces of hardware

Two weeks later with hardware replaced.

City employee is waiting on a gel material to see if these windows to the world can be cleaned up, if not lets hope the city will replace them.

Much still needs to be done in the way of a written maintenance schedule for which the city will more than likely have to pay for a replacement, seems Riverside County EDA claims to have turn over these schedules along with post construction drawings of the parks to the City of Wildomar when the city took the parks from the county in July of 2009 , the city claims not to have these schedule and drawings.
It is most important from a risk management point of view that a written check sheet be used to document the maintenance ensuring that no step is left out and the process is done on a regular basis and documented. This type of check-off sheet/log has not been observed when the maintenance process is being performed.

We should a similar type form, checked off, signed an kept in a book for each park in the maintenance room.

The city also needs to pony up the money to replace certain elements of the Tot-Lots, like the viewing windows and bubble that are so worn one thinks there vision is going south, or the one that’s been broken for eons. The talking tube at Regency Heritage that is missing along with fixing the periscope and mirrors and chimes at Windsong.

I hate to admit it but I am considered a senior citizen and after having checked out the equipment for kids I would like to know where is my playground.
Many countries around the world are installing Senior Playgrounds much like the Tot-Lots installed for children to learn mobility and gross motor skills these are designed for seniors to maintain what they already have.
Would-be gym-goers often site accessibility and affordability as two of the most significant barriers to regular physical activity, so the outdoor gyms are noteworthy for compelling more people to exercise more often. Unlike standard exercise equipment the outdoor machines harness an individual’s body weight instead of using electricity to create resistance making them eco-friendly.
With the parks in Wildomar used during the early morning hours by seniors as a safe place to walk adding this equipment may inspire more visitors to the parks.
The senior housing near Windsong Park could easily be connected by a short walking trail leading to a Senior Playground by way of Como St. to Gierson Ave. (Monty might not be happy).

At the City Council meeting on Wednesday August 13, 2014 the current mayor of Wildomar asked staff to look into signs so that residents can find the local library. After leaving the meeting having made a suggestion of attaching a sign to the existing stop light where a street sign normally hangs, I have been to the Mission Trail Library at least a thousand times since it opened July of 2001 and get there by rote, I decided to swing by the library on the way home.

A beacon in the night

The best I can do with my phone. The green sign hanging says library.

Low and behold within minutes of the mayors request to staff there in the darkness is a sign calling out to me, it says library.

Approaching the library from either the north or the south are international road signs for a library.

Approaching from the north, traveling south.

Approaching from the south, traveling north. As was the bird.

Granted some work needs to be done with the encroachment of shrubbery in the easement which blocks the sign

If you look close the sign is there.

and cleaning these signs as both could use it, but they are there.

While we are at the library there will be a meeting concerning buses and routes in the local area held on September 8, 2014 from 4-7 PM. Some people are concerned about the lack of routes in Wildomar but I think the more important item to be concerned about is

A typical bus stop in Wildomar.

The lack of covered stops, have you ever stood in the baking sun or the pouring rain waiting for a bus. Some stops in this town don’t even have a bench. Advertising could be used to pay for maintenance, if it doesn’t violate the counties banner ordinance. One other thing this meeting is being proclaimed to set the routes for the next ten years, problem with that is this local meeting is held every year about the same time.

Numerous complaints have been heard and observed by myself. One would never know if a complaint has been filed with the city.
ANTS are a major problem in at least two of the cities parks, Marna O’Brien and Windsong Park. The ant hills in Marna O’Brien are clearly visible throughout the park.

These hills a located all over the park. I counted at least 20 in a short period of time

What flavor of ants do we have is best left to the experts, but these do have a hell of a sting.

List of stinging ants in the U.S.

The ants that normally populate this area of the Southern United States are the native Southern Fire Ant.

This is the usual suspect.

But in recent years a new more irritating species has arrived the Imported Red Fire Ant.

This is a nasty one.

Maybe one of the future “Movies in the Park” can be “The Ant Bully”.
For those camping in the park this evening lets hope you avoid the ant hills.

After attending an audit performed by a Certified Playground Safety Inspector I took what little knowledge gained to the Tot-Lots of Wildomar. What I found was not a big surprise.
Marna O’Brien Park had numerous loose apparatuses, such as the RHINO, there is no telling how long this has been in this condition as there is no one person (Park Department) to contact at the city or an easy way to do so from the park.

The apparatus in question

These bolts could use a good tightening.

A view from the top of the loose bolts below.

Note the missing hardware.

Fortunately the parks part-time employee was present and having no one to bury today I persuaded him to fix the problem. He did the best he could with the limited tooling available to him at the cemetery. That’s correct the parks do not have there own tools even though many of the structures require special tooling found nowhere else in the city.

One of many loose bolts, now tightened.

Tightened with a tool provide by moi-meme. That means it came from my house.
Still needing repair is missing bolt on transfer steps leading to a slide. Along with some missing hardware and parts.

Broken knob and missing bolt.

It would be nice is the sensory panels we do have worked as well.

Not a single chime chimes

Somethings discovered can only be answered by an official audit by a Certified Playground Safety Inspection by a CPSI using the tools of the trade.

Is this large gap going to be a crush injury or an entanglement ?

Next I went to Heritage Regency Park were every was going swimmingly until

Glass was discovered having been shower down from above.

This lead to the discovery of more glass. This occurred several hours after the parks were open to the public for the day.

If this had occurred any other day a park employee would not have been available to clean up properly.

A few loose bolts were noted and several items that have been broken for a long time need to be replaced.

These are pricey to replace but if your going to have them they should work.

The last park was Windsong which was kind of fun as several children were using the equipment and wanted to know why such a big kid was on the equipment.

Again if your going to have it make it work.

I don’t think thunk is the sound they had in mind.

Some of these problems were corrected like the Rhino at Marna O’Brien and the broken glass at Heritage Regency only because on this day an employee was present.

I attended a Certified Playground Safety Inspection audit of the Tot-Lot at Perret Park in Lakeland Village this morning at 8:00 AM.
In attendance were three representatives from Riverside County Regional Parks and Open Space District – Community Parks Division. The Community Parks Division is relatively new to the County of Riverside as prior to this, about a year, Economic Development Agency (EDA) took care of the community parks.
Present were
William Cloake IV, Parks Superintendent,
Bob Wagner, Parks Maintenance Supervisor, CPSI
Paul Sanderson, CSA Maintenance, CPSI (this is the man who conducted the actual audit)

The seal of approval

You read that correctly, two of the personnel present were CPSI (Certified Playground Safety Inspector)
They came with a copy in hand the Public Playground Safety Handbook Pamphlet #325 (2010) issued by the U.S. Product Safety Commission and adopted by California Statue.
With them they also had an audit sheet detailing all the areas needing to be checked and their requirements and the necessary tools to perform the inspection.

Thiese are representative of the types of tools they brought with them

The Tot-Lot at Perret Park is about as large as the lot at Marna O’Brien which was built at approximately the time period. It was a couple of inches low as measured by the inspector, on Engineered Wood Fiber (EWF) surfacing material, much like Marna O’Brien. In the next couple of weeks the same type of material will be brought in to bring it up to the 9 inches of compacted material required, this Engineered Wood Fiber (EWF) meets A.D.A requirements.
All of the equipment was inspected for missing or loose hardware while it was being checked for protrusion hazards, using the appropriate tools.
The equipment was also tested for head entrapment hazards which could result in the strangulation of a child should their body pass thru a hole but not their head.
Also checked for was entanglement hazards along with crush hazard which may snag a piece of clothing or cause an amputation.
The inspection of this one park took about 2 hours time and will go a long way in giving parents piece of mind when they let their child have fun in this Tot-Lot.

Since Monday August 4, 2014 the City of Wildomar has been attempting to blow all their troubles away by adding new material on top of the old at the cities three Tot-Lots.

Marna O’Brien in the process.

Of course I’m going to complain about it for a number of reasons.
An e-mail sent to the city asking about the certification for this material was forwarded to the appropriate staff (who ever that might be) and then never answered, par for the course.
I caught up with our part-time groundskeeper and asked him about it, deer in the headlight.
The question remains, is this material the appropriate material. Numerous wood products can be used in a playground but only one is also A.D.A. compliant.
Rather than having a Certified Playground Safety Inspection performed where all of the deficiencies are found, and there are many, and then a plan of action established to address them this city has chosen once again to address the obvious leaving the hidden hopefully to remain hidden.
Hidden like the numerous sticks, pieces of broken glass, pencils, etc.

Heritage Tot-Lot Retention Basin. That holds water without bark.

Just some of the materials removed in between loads of ? mulch.

Items removed without the aid of a rake.

A lot of glass was missed. For a dramatic look at the dangers of a pencil, google pencil 3 year old boston.

Until a Certification Sticker is affixed to each of the Tot-Lots along with each Tot-Lot audit made available on the parks website, parents should either watch their children closely or avoid these play areas altogether.